Rocket
A rocket is a large, often multi-stage launch vehicle, used to deliver a payload to a wide variety of planetary and orbital destinations. On at least two occasions, Black Mesa has used rockets to deliver satellites to orbit. Each of these plays a large role in the storyline where it appears, usually as a means of attempting to solve the overarching problem of the plot. Appearances ''Half-Life'' During the Black Mesa Incident several scientists at the facility prepare to launch a Satellite Delivery Rocket in an attempt to close the dimensional rift, only to be stopped by HECU personnel, leaving Gordon Freeman to complete the task himself. Gordon manages to take down the soldiers and launch the rocket, delivering the satellite and successfully closing the portal to Xen. However, it's later revealed that though the satellite did manage to close the rift on their side, it's still being held open on the other side by a powerful being, later revealed to be Nihilanth. Two more rockets are encountered later in the chapter Surface Tension, located in a large warehouse booby-trapped with many trip mines. If a single mine is detonated it will cause all the other mines and the rockets to detonate in a chain reaction destroying the warehouse and killing everyone inside. ''Half-Life 2: Episode Two'' After Gordon and Alyx's escape from City 17 and the Citadel's collapse, Alyx attempted to make contact with White Forest to tell them about the codes she retrieved in the Citadel and the situation of the Superportal. Dr. Magnusson orders them to get to White Forest Base as soon as possible, believing that the codes Alyx is carrying can be used to close the Superportal via a rocket the base had been preparing for some time. Upon arrival to the base, Alyx and Gordon are put to work preparing the rocket for launch, and even defending the base from the weakened Combine's attempts to stop the launch. When all is safe, and the rocket is fully prepared, Gordon receives the honor of launching the rocket and finally closing the Superportal and the last remaining link to the Combine Overworld. It may also be noted that Dr. Kleiner reported before launch that the rocket had a payload anomaly of 8 lbs. Earlier in the silo chamber Lamarr can be seen crawling into the hatch on the rocket. The player has the opportunity to close the hatch with Lamarr inside. Given that the satellite has no life support equipment, it can therefore be assumed that Lamarr will eventually die. Behind the scenes *According to Matt Wright, the team designed Magnusson's rocket around blueprints from the Titan family of missiles instead of just making up something that fit their fantasies of a rocket. He adds that grounding the details of their world in reality, making them as precise as possible, makes the invented, fantastic elements seem that much more believable.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary (It's debatable how closely the team made use of their references; while Magnusson's rocket looks vaguely like a Titan-II around the nose, it is much shorter, and all members of the Titan family employed the twin-motor LR-87 first-stage engine, which had only two nozzles.) Trivia Half-Life *Written in small letters on the rocket is the NASA logo. If not an Easter egg, this may suggest that the American space agency was involved in the rocket's design and development. **The Black Mesa rocket (very vaguely) resembles an early Delta II rocket, albeit a considerably shortened one. The Delta II family entered service in 1989, and the NASA "worm" logo seen on the Black Mesa rocket was discontinued for almost all purposes in 1992, so it's possible that the Black Mesa rocket is an early Delta II obtained from NASA, and presumably shortened afterward. **There's also a written "USAF" (United States Air Force) on the rocket. *When the rocket is seen inside the silo, it's lacking its bottom jets. *Since the blast doors to the silo can't be seen from the control room they don't have a choreographed opening, so the rocket simply passes through it. *In the warehouse full of tripmines, if player activates the "GOD" cheat (god mode) and sets off a mine, the game will still fail and the white screen can been seen, but it will not display the game-over text. Half-Life 2 EP2 *If a Strider manages to reach the silo and destroy the rocket all of White Forest will be destroyed. **Given the aftermath of the 1980 incident in which a Titan II exploded in its silo outside Damascus, Arkansas, this is reasonably plausible. On the other hand, the shortened rocket seen in the game wouldn't contain nearly the same volume of fuel and oxidizer as that involved in the 1980 incident, with a concomitant reduction in scale of the rocket explosion and the resulting clouds of toxic vapor. *The achievement "Little Rocket Man" requires Gordon put a gnome in the rocket with Lamarr. Gallery ''Half-Life'' and its expansions File:Propaganda 01.png|Propaganda poster, featuring the rocket seen along Sector C Line. File:Rocket launch canyon.jpg|The rocket silo. File:Hl1 rocket launch1.jpg|The rocket lifting off. File:Hl1 rocket launch2.jpg|Ditto. File:Friendly Fire4.jpg|Stored rocket, with its nose removed by the Black Ops. File:BMrocketlogo.png|The logo featured on the Black Mesa rockets (with fixed ratio). File:NASA Logo.jpg|NASA logo as seen on the rocket. ''Half-Life 2: Episode Two'' File:G-man rocket.jpg|The G-Man in the rocket silo. File:Rocket silo.jpg|The White Forest rocket sitting in its silo within the base. File:Lamarr in the rocket.jpg|Lamarr hiding in White Forest's rocket. File:Gnome.jpg|The Garden Gnome put in the rocket. File:Ep2 outland 110007.JPG File:Ep2 outland 110014.JPG File:Ep2 outland 110010.JPG File:Ep2 outland 12a0091.JPG|Kleiner showing Gordon the rocket launch button at White Forest. Of note is the letter A hidden by tape, making a pun with the words "lunch" and "launch". File:Ep end 05.jpg|White Forest's launch site moments before the rocket launch. File:Ep end 06.jpg|Less than a second before launch, viewed from the control room. File:Ep end 07.jpg|The rocket lifting off as the group watches. File:Ep end 08.jpg|The rocket lifting off. File:Ep end 10.jpg|Ditto. File:Rocket light smoke.jpg|Watching the rocket's smoke trail. List of appearances * Half-Life * Half-Life: Opposing Force * Half-Life: Decay * Half-Life 2: Episode Two References Category:Black Mesa technology Category:Resistance technology Category:Half-Life 2: Episode Two Category:Half-Life Category:Brush entities